Samsung Electronics reported on Wednesday a small rise in first-quarter operating profit as customers concerned about US tariffs rushed to purchase smartphones and commodity chips, mitigating the impact of its underperforming artificial intelligence chip business.
Samsung did not give its earnings outlook for the current quarter, saying "growing macroeconomic uncertainties due to recent global trade tensions and slowing global economic growth" made it "difficult to predict future performance."
The world's largest memory chip maker reported 6.7 trillion won (US$4.68 billion) in operating profit for the quarter ended in March, up 1.2 per cent from a year earlier and in line with its earlier estimate of 6.6 trillion won.
Samsung's chip division posted an operating profit of 1.1 trillion won, down 42 per cent from a year earlier. Its mobile device and network business saw its profit rise 23 per cent to 4.3 trillion won during the period.
Revenue rose 10 per cent to 79.1 trillion won in the January-to-March period, in line with its earlier estimate of 79 trillion won.
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